She's Good, Too Good
by Destini Jensen Venturi
Summary: It's the same night that they were told they would have to redo the assignment 'together.' What do you do, what can you do? When the keener becomes the schemer once again? Do you fight it? Or do you give in, give up? OneShot. NonDasey.


**Disclaimer:** I do not own the characters, trademarks, logos etc. of _Life with Derek_. In addition, I was inspired by **Oasis Blackmore**'s _The Weight of Jupiter_ and a comment that was made by a radio Deejay on a radio station that I listen to every now and then.

* * *

**_She is Good, Too Good_**

"Oh, great," Casey complained, as she looked over the damage that had been caused to the project when the solar system project had collapsed, again. "It just had to fall apart, _again_."

This had been the sixteenth time that they had set up the project and it had collapsed. It was midnight and they were getting nowhere with it. If only the planets would align accordingly and stay balanced then maybe it would not end up collapsing every single time they were finished with it. This was the exact same problem she had had with it on the original night before it had been due. They were never going to get this done by tomorrow morning.

Well, 'they' was an over statement. Casey had been the only one working on it for the last five hours and Derek only sat and watched, oh, and complained. His aloof demeanor was also not helping the situation much. You would think that since he was actually down here that he would at least be helping, but no, he would rather sit and watch her fail _their_ assignment. The assignment they had been given as a means to make up for the previous separate assignments that they had both lied about.

"You don't have to be such a perfectionist, you know." Derek taunted, smirking at her misfortune. It was not a question, but more of a statement. He was enjoying watching her get all flustered and infuriated at a circular 3-D piece of Styrofoam.

"And you don't have to be such an ostentatious jerk. _You know_." Casey retorted quickly in a malicious manner, while trying to make the makeshift solar system stand upright. Her attempts were futile however, when it once again collapsed before she could even finish it this time. When it had collapsed she still held a makeshift Styrofoam version of Neptune in one hand and Saturn in the other hand.

She sighed and looked back up at him looking defeated with a pleading look on her face silently asking him to get off his lazy butt and actually help her instead of sitting there watching it collapse time after time.

Derek had no idea what ostentatious meant, but he was not going to ask and give her the upper hand. He was going to sit right here doing what he does best: absolutely nothing.

He leaned forward on his elbows on the island, in the same position he had been in when she had come to him groveling for help with her 'little lie,' while now giving her an impassive look. He would rather be asleep, but yet again the project had collapsed and Casey was going to continue to make him stay down here and _help her_. What did he do to deserve this? Oh, right – turned in a project that was not done by him and was caught, all thanks to Edwin's slip of mouth.

"I blame you," Casey accused, as she laid the dismantled project pieces back down on the island, then running her hands through her hair making it puff out like it had the other morning. She would have thrown the pieces of the project at him. She was angry enough to, but that would definitely get them nowhere and this had to be ready to turn in first thing in the morning. "You and that stupid imaginary dog! If it weren't for any of that I wouldn't be stuck in the kitchen with _you_ working on this ridiculous project that is downright _impossible_ to complete!"

"I beg to differ," Derek stated calmly, as he wagged his index finger towards her face. He truthfully did not have the effort to yell back at her; he was missing quality sleep time, but he would if the situation made it necessary. "You need to mostly blame yourself for getting the due date wrong and making up the _little doggy_ in the first place. And I can blame Edwin for getting me here, stuck with you, working on this project that I wasn't even going to do in the first place."

"You're still not working on it, Derek!! And remember, _you_ told me to lie! And I did, I listened to you! It was my last resort, Derek! I can't believe I even came up with that stupid little dog!" She continued to yell in his face, it was surprising no one had come in to the kitchen to ask what was going on, but with this family, it would not be hard for any of them to guess – Derek and Casey were having one of their usual fights, in the kitchen in the middle of the night. Casey's yelling had to have woken them up; they were most likely ignoring it. "It ruined everything, and I was not about to get my first 'F' ever. That may come easy for you, but I have a standard to upkeep. My grades are the one thing I truly _do_ have."

Deciding not to go down memory lane and bring up the 'Grade Grubber' incident, Derek decided to go a completely different route.

"Well, speaking of _little doggies_, do you want to know the difference between you and a puppy?" Derek had decided to veer off her topic into one that would cause an argument so he could walk out of the room and go to bed leaving her to do this project herself. He knew that if he got on her nerves enough she would decide to complete it herself.

"No, I don't, but I'm sure you'll enlighten me anyway." She rolled her eyes and pretended to no longer be listening. He stood and walked around the island stopping just before her, then turned his back to the island and leaned his back against it crossing his arms in front of him – expecting to be the first one out of the kitchen after their argument was over.

"Alright then," he let his eyebrows rise briefly as he looked to the floor on his left side. Casey turned in her seat to face him, expecting him to move on to another topic. He looked back at her and as he made eye contact, she could see the mischievous glint in his eyes and his trademark smirk on his handsome face and she knew he was up to something.

"The difference between you and a puppy is that _eventually_ the puppy would stop whining about whatever it is that she's whining about, unlike you who seems to enjoy whining _endlessly _about the smallest little things. Like your homework not being just exactly the way you want it or the fact that you have no status in this house." He knew it was a substandard attempt at starting an argument, but he also knew she would be offended by it.

She gasped and he smirked at her reaction, but after a few moments, she had realized what he was trying to do and decided to make his plan her own. She then scowled, giving him her harshest look for a matter of minutes, stood from her seat and turned to walk out of the room.

'_Wha…? No comeback? No argument?'_ he thought as she walked out of the kitchen into the living room. _'I don't get it. Did she figure out my plan? I'm supposed to be the one walking out not her.'_

"Does this mean you're no longer talking to me?" He asked, yelling into the living room, trying to hide his surprise of her retreat from the kitchen and his curiosity in the question.

"What do you care!?" She yelled back from the living room, obviously pissed off. Today was just not one of her best days. She was caught lying, which was all Derek's fault because he is the one who suggested it in the first place. Her science teacher had come to her home and played a trick on her to get her to tell the truth. Then, to make matters seriously worse, she was stuck working on the project with Derek because his little scheme of having Edwin do his project had backfired just like the lying had. Which to be in all fairness, both incidents could be considered lying. And now, this – Derek acting like a pompous jerk.

"I don't," he began, his own displeasure seeping through his words as he spoke. "I just wanted to know so I could begin celebrating not having to listen to you whine!"

"Well then, yes, I am no longer talking to you!" She yelled back as she began her tread up the stairs to her room. He would have made a comment that by answering his question, she was still talking to him, but she spoke again before any words could escape his mouth.

"Throw a damn party because of it for all I care! See if I give a damn!"

Her reaction was quite a change. He thought he would never hear a curse come from her lips. Getting over the surprise quickly, he replied with the only thing he could think of.

"Fine, I will!" He would not really throw a party, of course, but it was all the better making her think he would. It somehow soothed his pride.

She was gone by now - cooped up in her room, probably crying over their small little argument. '_She is far too emotional for her own good.' _He thought. _'A typical girly, girl.'_

Anger seethed through him, until a wicked, satisfied smile formed on his face. No more having to listen to her whine. No more having to listen to her at all because she would not be speaking to him. Life was going to be great for the first time since the MacDonalds had moved in to this house.

Nevertheless, his smile faltered when he realized that she had left him with the project that was due first thing tomorrow morning. It was either do the project or they would both get an 'F' and he knew that she would blame him for it for all eternity if he just went to bed right this minute leaving the project uncompleted. He did not want to have anything else that she could blame him for; there was a long enough list as it was already and she usually found things to blame him for that were not even his fault. It was not that he did not enjoy their little spats; he would just rather not have to deal with one in the morning after not getting much sleep tonight due to this _stupid_ project – and it seems she knew this before deciding to leave him with the project unfinished.

He sighed as he sat in the now vacant seat where Casey once sat and picked up random pieces of the project and began assembling them. It would not be perfect, as she wanted it, but at least it would be done.

'_Oh, she's good,'_ he thought._ 'Too good.'_

* * *

**Author's Note:** **_Date — Friday, October 27, 2006._**

Well, how was my first LwD One-Shot? It is not a romance; at least to me it is not. Sorry to all of the other Dasey-fanatics out there.

Unfortunately, I did not get it out right after "Lies My Brother Told Me" aired because I was inspired by **Oasis Blackmore**'s _The Weight of Jupiter_ and a comment that a radio Deejay had made on a radio station that I sometimes listen to (yes, that was the whining puppy comment). However, I did have two other _Life with Derek_ fanfictions and two other _Hey Arnold_ fanfictions I have been working on and schoolwork so I guess you can say that it is understandable for why I was not finished with this a few days ago. I also kept this story quiet while I tried to raise the hype for _Mysterious Wind,_ my LwD crossover with _Martin Mystery,_ by mentioning it a lot and suggesting that people watch _Martin Mystery_.

In addition, as I previously stated, yes, this is a one-shot. I might consider extending it to a multi-chapter-fic with _or_ without romance - although, as I re-read through it I am getting ideas for another chapter, but I still have not decided yet. So for right now, I would like to finish _Things Can Only Get Better_, _Mysterious Wind_, _Blame the Mistletoe_, and _Years Later –_ _Book #1: What If?_, and I am also working on writing out the details/descriptions for **DerekandCasey**'s _Flying Frying Pans_ dialogue-only fiction. Yes, I decided to take that on too. When I get an idea, I just go with it. In addition, I have schoolwork to keep up with – depending on your major, college usually ends up dishing out way more homework than high school ever did – just a warning to any of you who are college-bound. Therefore, for the time being, this will be a one-shot and it might end up staying that way. As I said, I have not officially decided yet.

I also plan to have half of _Mysterious Wind_ posted by Sunday night; I am also considering changing the title. Moreover, I plan to have the complete story up by Tuesday **_—_** hopefully. Although, I do have a midterm to study for…I am still going to try my best to get it all uploaded by then since it does seem to have somewhat of a Halloween theme to it even though there is nothing holiday related going on in the story.

**_Sunday, October 29, 2006_** _**— Added Note: **I was going to post this on Friday night, but I had problems with the New Story links. It would not do anything in IE and it closed out FireFox after clicking on a category just as both browses had done when I first tried to upload Things Can Only Get Better. Oh, and do you not just hate it when Fanfiction(dot)net decides to mess with what you have written and randomly erase some of your punctuation or spaces or words? I checked this document over fifteen times before I finally decided to upload it. When it was finally uploaded, I ended up with:_ _**"thingsLike your homework not being just exactly the way you want it or the fact that you have no status in this house"**. I re-checked my document that was still on my hard drive and sure enough – I had put punctuation and spaces where they belonged – FFnet erased it during upload! It was still there when I checked through the document in the FFnet editor. This bugs me, sorry - I am a grammar-control-freak._

— **_Destini V. —_**

–– **Well, do not forget to review! I do _not_ _"rely on them or my life will end,"_ but I do enjoy reading them, they now make me smile: flames, praise, and all. ––**

–– **Thanks for reading. ––**


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